Saint Kateri Tekawitha

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, baptised as Catherine Tekakwitha and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks,

was an Algonquin-Mohawk woman born in present-day New York state who became well known as a Catholic religious lay woman. She was canonized a saint in the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012, the first Native American saint. Eighty thousand people attended the ceremony in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Pope Benedict declared on recognizing her sainthood, "May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are."

Born: 1656 in Auriesvile

Died: April 17, 1680 in Kahnawake

Feast Day: July 14

Patron of the environment and ecology

A statue of Saint Kateri Tekawitha is placed at the steps of Holy Cross School at San Buenaventura Mission to honor the local Native American Chumash people who helped build and sustain the Mission until the 1840's. Turtles form the base of her statue giving testimony to her lineage as a Mohawk, the Tribe of the turtle.